Saturday 1 March 2008 19.05 EST
First published on Saturday 1 March 2008 19.05 EST

Severe cutbacks in researchers' freedom to study bones and skeletons from ancient graves have been imposed without warning by the Ministry of Justice. The move has caused consternation among archaeologists, who say that the restrictions will badly damage their ability to study Britain's past.

The ruling means permission for digs at burial grounds and old churchyards will be denied in some cases, while in others excavated human remains will have to be reburied within two months of their discovery.

In the past, researchers have been allowed to analyse skulls and bones for long periods. At the Vineyard, Abingdon, in Oxfordshire, for example, archaeologists uncovered hundreds of bodies from Roman, medieval and Civil War graves in the Nineties and then stored them before using them as sources for the first DNA sampling of buried human remains.

Scientists have also been able to study the impact of TB, osteoporosis and syphilis on early Britons as well as infant mortality. 'DNA analysis, isotope measuring and other techniques have recently revealed all sorts of information about our ancestors and our relationships with them,' said David Miles, the chief archaeological adviser to English Heritage. 'Now we will be blocked from using them on new finds.'

An example of the power of new techniques for studying human remains was provided by scientists who extracted DNA from the 9,000-year-old Cheddar man, a skeleton first found in the Cheddar Gorge. That DNA was then shown to match samples taken from several residents of nearby Cheddar village.

When preparing to carry out an excavation on burial grounds, archaeologists used to apply for permits under the Disused Burial Grounds (Amendment) Act. However, it emerged that the law might not apply to the exhumation of human remains at archaeological sites, said a ministry official.

'As a result, we have not issued exhumation licences in such circumstances. It also emerged that in cases to which burial ground legislation did apply, there may be less scope for excavated human remains to be retained for as long as archaeologists might wish.'

Negotiations have failed to resolve the issue and this failure is now causing serious worries for archaeologists. A similar two-month reburial limit for uncovered remains is set to be incorporated in the CrossRail bill. Researchers expect hordes of archaeological goodies to be revealed when the massive railway line is drilled below London.

'If archaeologists excavating sites affected by CrossRail find an important Roman or Saxon cemetery, they simply couldn't do an adequate job of excavation and research in two months,' said Sebastian Payne, chief scientist at English Heritage. 'On top of that, they would be deprived of the remains in future to apply new techniques.'

This point was backed by Miles. 'People think archaeologists go around digging up the dead wherever they want,' he said. 'We don't. Usually we are called in because a new railway, motorway, house, supermarket or church extension is being constructed. Buried humans are found and we are asked to deal with them. We then use these skulls and bones to learn about our ancestors. The Ministry of Justice is now stopping us from doing that any more.'